Malawian Football Association (FAM) president Fleetwood Haiya is demanding K200 million about USD 50,000 from his predecessor and parliamentarian Walter Nyamilandu Manda as damages for defamation.
Haiya, through his legal firm Blackstone Chambers, has written Nyamilandu to retract defamatory statements he made during an interview with an online publication Face2Face on Thursday, January 15, 2026.
It is alleged that during the interview, Nyamilandu claimed that he lost the FAM elections in December 2023 because Haiya was working with the ruling party to wrestle power from him.
He said in part: “Nditsindike pa funso lanu. Aliyense M’malawi anadziwa ndipo ankaona zomwe zinkachitika kuti sizinali zisakho. Inali coup. Coup de tat imene boma linabwera la MCP kundichotsa pa udindo chifukwa ine ndinali wa DPP.
Translated as; [Let me dwell on your question. Every Malawian knew and saw what was happening that it was not elections. It was coup-de-tat orchestrated by the previous Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government because I was a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member.]
The letter seen by Bola News says: “Your words have the effect of lowering the estimation of our client in the eyes of any right-thinking member of the Malawian society which has democracy underpinned by free and fair elections as its linchpin“
Apologize Within 48 Hours Or Else.
“On the basis of the above, we hereby demand that you publicly issue a retraction of your statement and publicly issue an apology to our client within 48 hours. We further demand a sum of K200 000 000.00 as damages for defamation”
Nyamilandu’s lawyer David Kanyenda says they have received instructions from his client to attend to the “so-called demand letter.”
“In our professional estimation, the claims by FH [Haiya] are totally devoid of legal merit and in due course we shall formally reply accordingly. We shall deploy our entire arsenal of legal resources and talent in order to vigorously contest any legal proceedings FH may initiate against our esteemed client,” he said.
On 13th December, 2023, Nyamilandu lost the FAM elections to Haiya with 23 votes to 13 votes.
